When the elderly Allan Armadale makes a terrible confession on his death-bed, he has little idea of the repercussions to come, for the secret he reveals involves the mysterious Lydia Gwilt: flame-haired temptress, bigamist, laudanum addict and husband-poisoner. Her malicious intrigues fuel the plot of this gripping melodrama: a tale of confused identities, inherited curses, romantic rivalries, espionage, money - and murder. The character of Lydia Gwilt horrified contemporary critics, with one reviewer describing her as 'One of the most hardened female villains whose devices and desires have ever blackened fiction'. She remains among the most enigmatic and fascinating women in nineteenth-century literature and the dark heart of this most sensational of Victorian 'sensation novels'.

Catherine Peters is Lecturer in English at Somerville College and author of Thackeray's Universe (1987)

2008-06-17 READ IT!

Don't argue, don't read any other reviews, just read it.
The depths that Collins' character Gwilt will go to just to further herself in life are chilling to say the least but the thing that clinched it for me and made the book more real is that she loved her husband (not giving the game away here!) You do keep the characters with you and relate to the dream in your own life.
Collins showed an incredible insight into women's thinking when he wrote the correspondence between Gwilt and the old woman.
stop reading this review, buy the book and lose yourself in it. Its worth it!